Photography happenings

Photography workshop to focus on Appalachian barns

A weekend photography workshop called “The Appalachian Barn Workshop: The Barns of Haywood and Madison Counties” will be held March 28-30 through EarthSong Photography.

Photographer Don McGowan will offer a full day of field work in Madison and Haywood counties, a creative program and a full critique session. Cost is $275, part of which will be a donation to the Appalachian Barn Alliance to help preserve the historic buildings. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Don McGowan at 828.788.0687.

Lens Luggers to host photo sharing sessions

The Lens Luggers photography group has begun holding monthly sharing sessions in Waynesville for photographers to talk shop and critique each other’s photos.

The sessions will be held from 6 and 8 p.m. the first Thursday of each month at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. The first meeting is February 6 and all are invited.

“It’s a great opportunity to pick up some photo tips, take away feedback from fellow photographers and find out which kind of camera and lenses produce the kind of images you want,” said Bob Grytten, the club leader and photography outing leader.

During the informal forum, members will show their images using a digital projector. There will be a Q&A session as well as open discussion.

This Must Be the Place

Standing in line at the Old Europe coffee shop in downtown Asheville, I said that to my old friend, Jerica. It was a rainy Sunday evening and we’d just gotten out of a documentary screening (about Tim Leary and Ram Dass) at the Grail Moviehouse. While I was mulling over the cosmic nature and theme of the film and what our place is in the universe (as per usual), I looked over at Jerica and smiled.

Reading Room

Of course, we’re intended to read from cover to cover many books — novels, histories, biographies, and more. It would make little sense to begin Mark Helprin’s novel A Soldier of the Great War on page 340 of its 860 pages. We might open and commence reading Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat, on page 241, but we’d miss some of the…